Twitter for Teachers: Twelve Teachers to Follow
Advances in web-based technology allow teachers to enrich their lesson with dynamic content that wasn’t as readily available before. Social media has also emerged as an important educational resource. Twitter is one way teachers are able to not only engage with their students, but also to communicate with one another. The following Twitter accounts belong to outstanding educators who are making enormous strides in the advancement of educational technology and social media. Jerry Blumengarten J…
STEM Initiatives in Texas
STEM is an acronym for Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics, and encompasses all of the subjects that fall beneath those umbrella categories. Although STEM education affects all aspects of society, the last two decades have seen an overall decline of student interest in STEM subjects in the United States. STEM is a pivotal part of our economy, and it is important that today’s students become tomorrow’s STEM leaders. Each state has responded to the growing disintere…
Educational News Round Up
From President Obama's new attempt at education reform to the release of a 14-year-old college graduate's new book, there has been a lot going on in the world of education this month. Here are a few of the top stories: Obama Proposes New Efforts in Education Reform The Obama Administration is implementing a new proposal for education reform, the RESPECT (Recognizing Educational Success, Professional Excellence and Collaborative Teaching) Project. The program is an effort to help schools “keep good teachers and reward the best ones,” which President Obama spoke about in his State of the Union Address. It proposes a $5 billion competitive grant to encourage states to revitalize their regulations in hiring and rewarding teachers. Much like the Race to the Top program, states will draft their own pl…
What is #edchat?
As one of the founders of #edchat, I get a lot of questions about the what, where, when and why, so here is everything you need to know about #edchat:
The History
#edchat started out of a series of conversations between myself, Tom Whitby and Shelly Terrell. Tom is a bit of an instigator and likes to push people’s thinking about various topics in education. One day, he was asking several of these thought-provoking questions and was getting comments from all angles. He turned…
Interview with Annie Fox about Great Teachers, Technology and Bullying
Annie Fox has been helping kids her entire life. After graduating from Cornell University and completing her Master’s in Education from the State University of New York at Cortland, she became a classroom teacher in upstate New York and, later, the San Francisco Bay Area. After a few years in the classroom, she and her husband opened the Marin Computer Center, the world’s first publicly accessible computer facility. Her passion to help children and belief that technology could aid her to that end brought Annie to write and design a series of award-winning children’s software and begin The InSite, a website dedicated to helping teens and young adults address their issues. Throughout her …
Republican Presidential Candidates on Education Policy
The race for the Republican nomination in the 2012 general election is underway, and (if one hasn’t already) a GOP primary election is coming to a state near you. The four candidates have taken clear positions on domestic policies like job creation and government reform, and have been equally vocal about their plans for the future of American education. As a teacher, the decisions made by these potential presidential candidates at the federal level could influence where you teach, what you teach, who you teach, your salary and even how your performance is assessed. Therefore, it behooves you as an educator to be well-informed about the candidates’ policies in general, but it is especially important to be in the know about th…